Recent findings of a strong and consistent relation between large scale economic change and numerous indicators of impaired human functioning have stimulated renewed interest in the social and psychological consequences of unemployment. The present research focuses on two economic variables, unemployment and job climate, as precipitators of significant stress for employed and unemployed workers and their families. The major objective of this study is to examine over time the independent and combined effects of job loss and employment climate on family and individual functioning and the processes through which these effects become manifest. Contrary to other research approaches in recent years, the major emphasis in this investigation is on the processes intervening between job loss and employment climate and family and individual outcomes. Unemployed and employed workers in blue collar and white collar occupations will be interviewed with their families at four points in time over the course of a year. In all, 160 families constitute the sample and will be drawn from a large metropolitan area. For some employment climate in their occupational field will be negative while for others, positive. The effects of job loss and climate on families are expected to be observed in their performance of instrumental and expressive tasks in different spheres of family functioning. For individuals, these effects will be measured in terms of physical and psychological symptoms as well as role performance. A major emphasis in the data collection is to observe patterns of family and individual coping in response to unemployment or job climate. A complex, dynamic model of this process has been developed and includes as a primary component, the social and material support resources available to respondents for coping.